VT has some great tunes on it, but suffers from the "this song sounds like the last song" syndrome that most of their post '80s albums do. I will say that S&A and Clockwork aren't too removed from that plight, but to me Clockwork Angels has some of the best material on it of any Rush album I've heard since the '80s. CA is rather backloaded with regards to its better material as it were. The press release touted it as a return to concept albums for them, but it doesn't play like that at all. If there's an over arching theme, its Peart's coming to acceptance with his life.